Central Bank Reports Inflation Rate in Iran Drops Below 16 Percent

On Tuesday, January 25, the Central Bank of Iran announced that the inflation rate for the twelve months ending in January of this year has decreased to 15.8 percent. Concurrently, the Statistical Center of Iran also reported a reduction in the inflation rate to 15.2 percent in January. This center had previously announced the annual inflation rate for December as 15.8 percent. A comparison of the inflation rate announced by the Central Bank in January of this year with the same period last year indicates a reduction of over 50 percent in this rate over the past year. The Central Bank had reported the inflation rate in January of last year as 36.7 percent. The inflation rate in the months following October of this year has also decreased by about 50 percent compared to the same period last year. The Central Bank of Iran had previously announced the inflation rate for December as 16.3 percent, while the inflation rate for December of last year was reported as 38.4 percent. Iran faced severe inflation and negative economic growth during the last two years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. World Bank statistics also indicate that Iran's inflation rate in 2013 was the highest in the world after Venezuela. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, had previously promised that the government would strive to bring the inflation rate below 20 percent by the end of this year. Alongside the release of the Central Bank's statistics, Mohammad Sadegh Ali Pour, the Economic and National Accounts Deputy of the Statistical Center of Iran, stated that the point-to-point inflation rate in December and January was 14.4 percent, which has not changed. According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), he commented on the differences between the inflation rates reported by the Central Bank and the Statistical Center of Iran, saying, 'The number of goods that the Statistical Center of Iran uses to calculate the consumer price index for urban and rural households is 451 items, which are examined in 12 main groups, but this number differs at the Central Bank.' Mr. Ali Pour added, 'Moreover, the weights of goods and services in household income and expenditure differ between the Statistical Center of Iran and the Central Bank.' Despite the uniform trend of decreasing inflation rates over the past 12 months, the changes in point-to-point inflation and monthly inflation rates have not been consistent, with these two rates increasing in some months of this year. In this context, the annual inflation rate in Iran has decreased to 15.8 percent.